I got to talking to a fellow here about NC and I brought up Bullhead Creek, He said he had fished there many years ago before it was turned over to the park and said the fishing was great, the fish were sizable and so on. I had fished there on a few occasions a few years ago(for those who don't know, it is a stream managed in the English style where you chose a "beat" of the stream and get to fish it all day to yourself) and although there were fish there I was certainly not impressed and the $10-12 fee was not worth it either, in my opinion, I did think the money was well worth it for the peace and quiet of knowing there would not be another angler on "your" stretch of river.
Has anyone fished this stream and noticed any improvements lately? Has anyone fished it enough to have any opinions good or bad?

Millerdvr--Bullhead went into a downward spiral a good many years back, and while I haven't fished it in the last couple of years (and won't), others tell me it is basically a waste of money now (and prices recently went up, I believe).
As for the privacy of a beat, that's a real plus, but most of those beats were of a length which the average angler would cover in no more than two hours.
Poaching, too much popularity, quite possibly to little attention from the NCWRC, and a host of other problems have made Bullhead a far cry from what it was before the state acquired it and, for that matter, for the first few years after the state had control.
I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that part of the agreement when the land was acquired was that the state had to maintain it as a fine trophy fishery. A lawyer could make a very sound argument that agreement (if one did indeed exist) has been broken.
Jim Casadawww.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

I think that part of the land transaction was that the state was supposed to maintain that Bullhead was a C&R pellet fed trophy section. The fee has gone up to $15 or so. It has for the most part been a waste of money for the last 5years or so. I remember the first time I fished it. I hit the practice pool and hooked a nice little 6' rainbow and out of the bottom of that pool a huge brown came up and was going to eat that poor thing while I stood there looking in disbelief. He saw me moving and went back to the bottom of the hole. Iwas awestruck.

They no longer feed the trout there so the big fish are all gone. Furthermore, they have increased the fee up to $22! I do not know how they justify increasing the fee, in fact, charging any fee, if they do not feed the trout.

I wish they would just go ahead and make it a fly fishing only stream with no fee. Bullhead is only a ghost of its former self.

MBB--"A ghost of its former self" was my impression five years ago, and anyone who pays $22 to fish a tiny stretch of stream where big fish aren't going to exist if there isn't supplemental feeding is living proof of the P. T. Barnum principle ("There's a fool born every minute"). I find it little short of incredible that the NCWRC has raised fees to this level even as they have, in effect, abandoned all management. I'd love to hear someone justify this.
Jim Casadawww.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

It's sad to hear. I've not heard much about Bullhead in some time. I fished it once in 1995. A buddy and I slept overnight in the back of a van at the gate to the State Park to get in hopefully first. We were fortunate to get beats #1 & #2. I believe it cost $4. I remember the creek was so small and each beat was probably 100 yds or so long. We took our time and fished the pools slowly only after spotting large browns first. The first pool I fished, I hooked something. My buddy said I was hung on a tree. I proved him wrong by walking into the water when the trout bolted into the next beat! We both walked away with several HUGE browns that day!

The good news is there are still places around with big fish to be caught. All they require is a state license and sometimes a trout stamp!